Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Hydragrammas in Malta

I'm travelling again this morning.  Today I have been transported to the city of Valletta on the island of Malta.  I am going to visit the National Museum of Fine Arts while I'm there.

It's interesting that while I have been educating myself art and art history and artists how much I've been learning.  It is fun to share it too and since over three thousand page views have occurred on this blog since I have started it, I figure I'm sharing all this with at least a few people.

If you have read anything this past week you know I've been researching each artist listed as having been in the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution show in 2007.

I wonder how many people are turned off by the word "feminist" these days?  I wonder how is it defined...

Feminism:  (Wikipedia definition) Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.  This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.

Okay.  I wonder how many people (worldwide) can claim to be a feminist?  There is an interesting feminist e-zine online...I found it taking a peek to see if there was any good stories about Islamic feminism and found this written by Caryle Murphy.

That was fun.  But.  Why have I travelled (in my imagination) to Malta and the National Museum of Fine Arts this morning?
National Museum of Fine Arts-Malta
photo by Frank Vincentz
Because of Sonia Andrade, the next artist on my list of artists who were in the WACK! show.

Sonia Andrade is a Brazilian artist and finding information about her is a bit tricky (because I am in the U.S. trying to find out information about her and she is Brazilian and so much written about her is in Spanish...).  She is considered a "video artist" but she does other types of art too so I have been trying to find out what I can.

Her art is categorized as "Conceptual Art" and she is a pioneer of video art and was in a "groundbreaking exhibition" - the first for video art in Brazil - so I can see why she was included in the WACK! show as an important artist to have there.

From the CLARA Database for Women Artists (yes, this is a fabulous site!) it says:
The work of Brazilian installation artist Sonia Andrade explores the relationship between the spectator and the object through the medium of single-channel video. While her installation pieces also include drawings, photography, objects, and postcards, the use of video allows Andrade to exploit the standardized visual system perpetuated by mass media images. The humor and political commentary which Andrade incorporates into her video work provides a powerful critique of modern media culture.

In a more recent article in the Rio (de Janeiro) Times - 2011 - Andrade is described as "one of Brazil’s most important and internationally recognized artists" in this story (by Saira Ansari) which was written to cover a retrospective show of her works given at the Municipal Art Center Hélio Oiticica.

In this story, Saira Ansari mentions that Andrade's Hydragrammas were "presented originally in 1993 at the National Museum of Fine Arts.  Where is that? ...I wonder
Parte da série “Hydragrammas”: inventário arquetípico da arte -
photo from Daniela Name's wordpress blog
I wish I could translate it...
Malta!  So there you go.  I'm there, but only in my imagination.  Maybe one day Mark and I will go.

Tomorrow I will be learning about Eleanor Antin.  I hope you will too.  :)

'Til then!

~Alex